Criminal turned criminologist John Irwin dies

John Irwin of San Francisco, a noted prisoners advocate who died Sunday. Irwin was a retired sociology professor at San Francisco State University and author of several books on criminology.

John Irwin of San Francisco, a noted prisoners advocate who died Sunday. Irwin was a retired sociology professor at San Francisco State University and author of several books on criminology.

Photo: Anne Irwin

Photo: Anne Irwin

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John Irwin of San Francisco, a noted prisoners advocate who died Sunday. Irwin was a retired sociology professor at San Francisco State University and author of several books on criminology.

John Irwin of San Francisco, a noted prisoners advocate who died Sunday. Irwin was a retired sociology professor at San Francisco State University and author of several books on criminology.

Photo: Anne Irwin

Criminal turned criminologist John Irwin dies

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John Irwin had the usual choice when he got out of Soledad Prison in 1957 after a five-year stretch for armed robbery: Do more crime, or remake his life.

He chose rebirth - with a passion.

Over the next half century, Mr. Irwin became one of the nation's foremost advocates for compassionate reform of the prison system, the author of six heralded books dissecting criminal justice, and a tenured sociology professor at San Francisco State University.

When he died at 80 at his San Francisco home of liver and kidney failure Sunday, he had one final book nearly ready for print, an autobiography he called "Rogue."

The term, in its kindest but most activist meaning, fit him perfectly, his family, friends and colleagues said.

"John was fearless about being honest about the realities of crime and justice," said Naneen Karraker, a national advocate for prison reform. "He had the courage to see things differently from the common way.

"He was an uncommon man."

Founded movements

In 1967, after he began teaching at S.F. State, Mr. Irwin founded Project Rebound, a program on the campus that helps those coming out of prison go to college. Over the ensuing decades, he co-founded the now-defunct Prisoners Union, which organized inmates to push for their civil rights, as well as the Convict Criminology movement, in which convicts who became professors critically examine the criminal justice system.

He was also on the board of directors of the Sentencing Project, the national organization that advocates prison reform and alternatives to incarceration.

"John always challenged us to think in bold ways about what kind of justice system, and society, we hoped to achieve," Sentencing Project Executive Director Marc Mauer wrote in a tribute on the organization's Web site this week. "And he did so with humor, grace and intelligence."

Mr. Irwin was born and raised in Los Angeles, where his father, Roy Irwin, sold insurance and ran a candy store, and his mother, Eloise Irwin, was a homemaker. As a teenager he became fascinated with what he called "the life" of being an outlaw, said his wife, Marsha Rosenbaum - and that led to his life-altering ensnarement with the criminal justice system.

He robbed a gas station, and while serving time he began to realize that education and going straight was a better alternative, she said.

"Prison really turned John around," Rosenbaum said. "He took care of his health, he went to school, and eventually he made it on the outside by transitioning from criminal to criminologist."

Pushed rehabilitation

Disturbed at what he saw as an unfair system of sentencing the poor to long prison terms rather than finding more rehabilitative alternatives, Mr. Irwin decided to devote his life's work to bettering the lot of convicts.

After being paroled, he earned a bachelor's degree in sociology at UCLA in 1962. He was hired five years later at S.F. State and taught there until retiring in 1994. He earned his doctorate at UC Berkeley in 1969.

Mr. Irwin's first book, an examination of career criminal behavior called "The Felon," became an instant classic in the field of criminology when published in 1970. The others that followed, including "Prisons in Turmoil" and "The Warehouse Prison," became touchstones of the prison reform movement. His last published book, last year's "Lifers," examined the struggle for redemption by convicts serving life terms.

'A remarkable man'

In between his more serious pursuits, Mr. Irwin found time to surf, ski, make furniture, root on the Giants and 49ers, and father three daughters and a son. He met his wife of 38 years when she was one of his graduate students.

"He was smart, had a sense of humor, had wisdom, and he was good-looking," said Rosenbaum, director emerita of the San Francisco office of the Drug Policy Alliance. "My husband was a remarkable man."

Mr. Irwin is survived by his wife; daughters Jeanette Irwin of Washington, D.C., Katie Irwin of Honolulu and Anne Irwin of San Francisco; and son Johnny Irwin of San Francisco.

A service for family and friends will be held at 4 p.m. Friday at the Golden Gate Club, 135 Fisher Loop at the Presidio in San Francisco.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Mr. Irwin's name can be made to the J.K. Irwin Foundation, which funds prison and drug reform, at 2233 Lombard St., San Francisco, CA 94123.